It is common practice for users to store data on storage media such as CD-ROMs, digital versatile disks (DVD), magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage, or magnetic hard disk drives. However, data stored on such storage devices can be lost due to fire, flood, theft, or any other event that adversely affects the storage medium. Therefore, it is often wise to generate a back-up copy of the data for storage at an off-site location in order to prevent destruction of both the original data and the back-up copy by the same catastrophic event.
Currently there are several methods to achieve the off-site backup. One example is to physically transport the storage medium containing the back-up copy to the back-up site. Such transportation may lead to further expense and opportunities for media damage. In addition, this method does not provide an efficient system and method for retrieving the stored data from the off-site location.
Another example is that a service provider provides an online centralized server for achieving the file data of its clients. But, prior online data storage systems are located at known sites on the Internet, and are therefore vulnerable to attack from malicious persons (i.e., hackers) attempting to access and/or modify data stored on such systems.
Still another example of the off-site backup is to form a group among a couple of friends/colleagues/relatives, and within this group each member could archive its data on others' storage device. The inefficiency of this solution is its limited sharing resources of storage capacity and its strong requirement of existing trust among group members.
Therefore, to address the inefficiencies of the above methods of off-site backup, there is a need to provide an improved apparatus/method for grouping a plurality of storage devices.